Born of Tears, Forged in Friendship
by Daelena
Summary: Thor makes an unexpected friend on a holiday the Avengers should really have baby-sat him on.


Born of Tears, Forged from Friendship

_Disclaimer__: I own absolutely nothing here._

_Summary__: Thor makes an unexpected friend on a holiday the Avengers should really have baby-sat him on. _

_This sort of birthed in my head a few days ago, when I was browsing my way through Tumblr (when I should have been doing other things) and I came across a post discussing the different kinds of fan-groups that the Avengers would have (if they acknowledged such fan-groups). The one for Thor was appropriate and I just had to write this._

_So, on with the show!_

Thor Odinson was quite amused by the antics of the people of Midgard.

They held a special place in his heart, for a variety of reasons, and he rather enjoyed what time he could spend on Midgard – not as much as he would like, what with Loki's perpetual anger at their father and his other duties on Asgard. However, the demi-god found himself spending a significant amount of time among the humans, mainly due to his affiliation with the team more popularly known as the Avengers. Those missions he participated in were always of the world-saving variety and Thor Odinson was quite good at saving world and fighting for just causes, as he discovered so recently.

Such a mission had him on Midgard for several weeks recently, combating a terrorist group that somehow had gotten their hands on technology from halfway across the galaxy and had to be stopped. It was something of a messy mission and Thor had paperwork, as a direct result.

Paperwork confused Thor, no matter how many times the Hawk had explained it to him. Agent Clint Barton, of all the Avengers, seemed to have extreme patience, the Asgardian mused, because he was the only one who would walk him through the confusing task of paperwork on numerous occasions. The Lady Widow said that it was something due to the fact that Clint refused to do paperwork unless Pop-Tarts were involved and Thor was the only one of them who shared his immense love of the sugary foodstuff.

But that was another story for another time.

Right now, Thor was walking down the street in a suburb of New York City, enjoying the fall weather of said suburb. Steve Rodgers had said something about the beauty of autumn and Thor was intrigued, so here he was, dressed in Midgardian clothes (to look as inconspicuous as possible, the rest of the Avengers had told him).

It was the middle of October by the Midgard calendar and the weather was quite beautiful, though Thor wished that Jane Foster would be there to enjoy it with him. She was still tied up on whatever project SHIELD had her working on and couldn't get away, much to Thor's chagrin. But such was life.

Furthermore, his Midgardian friends and fellow Avengers had told him that it was close to a festival known as Halloween, in which people would dress up as someone not themselves and give out sweets. Thor didn't quite understand the sudden fascination that Midgard had with dark creatures around this time of year, but he did like the idea of sweets. Maybe some people would give out Pop-Tarts. He did so like those.

And, regardless of how close it was to this Halloween, Steve, son of Rodger, was correct. It was a very lovely day outside.

However, things would not remain for Thor Odinson. In fact, things would happen that would change his perspective of two rather specific groups of Midgardians for forever.

Or, rather, Thor turned a corner and saw something that made him frown.

A gaggle of boys of various ages that, Thor guess, ranged from six to ten surrounded a smaller figure that he couldn't quite make out yet. Something about this group of children made him pause. He recognized the air of derision that was surrounding them, though he knew that, once upon a time, in his more ignorant youth, he had been the cause for stupid derision, though not in the way that Midgard children would understand.

Regardless, he did not like the attitudes that these boys were giving off and that made Thor Odinson upset.

Swiftly and stealthily closing the distance between himself and the group of boys, Thor saw, with better clarity, who the group was surrounding and that made him very angry. When he heard what they were saying, that just set him on edge.

"You can't be a warrior for Halloween," a brown-haired boy who looked (by Thor's reckoning) to be about ten and the ring-leader of this group said. "You're a girl. Girls don't fight."  
The little blonde girl they were surrounding sniffled. She couldn't be more than six years old and was obviously crying. "But I wanna."

"Too bad. Go be a princess or some other stupid thing that girls are," another boy said, jostling her shoulders.

"Why can't I dress up like you guys?" she asked, weakly, tears in her eyes.

"Boys get to dress up like Captain America and Iron Man. You can't because you're a girl." The boys all laughed. "Everyone knows that girls can't fight."

And that, Thor decided, was enough of that.

"Who says that ladies may not be warriors?" Thor said, his deep voice booming, alerting the entire group of children to his presence. They all looked up at him and he saw how the boys gave him wide-eyed looks of admiration. The little girl blushed.

"You're Thor!" the lead boy said, awe in his tone.

"Aye, I am," he confirmed, crossing his arms and giving the best impersonation of Odin All-Father that he could muster. "But that is not what I asked? Who told this fine young lady here that she may not be a warrior?"

The boys all flushed and searched for an answer.

"Everyone knows that boys fight and girls do stupid things like play with dolls."

Thor huffed.

"Nay, I know many a ladies who are fine warriors. The Lady Widow, for example, is one of the fiercest warriors that I know. Many times, she has out-shone my team-mates and me in physical prowess." The boys all gave faces at that. Thor smirked. He looked down at the girl and she gave him a wide-eyed and hopeful look. "Not only that," he continued, "on Asgard, to be a lady warrior is to hold high honor among my people. The Lady Sif has fought in many battles and defeated untold enemies and she is well-liked and well-respected among my people."

"Well yeah, but still, she can't dress up like a warrior for Halloween, especially 'cuz she wants to dress up like a boy." The lead boy crossd his arms defiantly.

Now that just sounded lame to Thor's ears.

"There is no honor in making fun of the dreams of a future, brave warrior." Thor gave them an intimidating glare and the gaggle of boys disappeared with extreme haste. He then crossed to the little girl and knelt downso that he was closer to her eye-level. She blushed and backed away shyly from him. "What is your name, fair lady?" Thor asked, extending his hand to her.

"Elizabeth," she answered, not quite looking at him, but reaching out and placing a hand on his proffered one.

Thor kissed the back of her hand. "It is a great honor to meet you, Lady Elizabeth."

She giggled. "You're my favorite Avenger," she admitted, moments later. "I want to be like you when I grow up, but they say that I can't dress up like you for Halloween."

"You may be anyone you want to be, Lady Elizabeth," Thor told her. "It would be a great honor if a brave lady as you dress as me for these Halloween festivities."

"Really?"

He nodded.

"Perhaps, if you will allow it, little warrior, I shall accompany you myself on your Halloween festivities, to ensure that no one will think that you are anything but a brave warrior," he offered.

Elizabeth gave him a truly bright smile and, before Thor could register anything else, she threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He chuckled and returned her hug.

"Elizabeth," a woman's voice called from a little ways up the street, "there you are!"

The girl twisted in his arms and she giggled at the sight of the woman. Thor released the girl and stood up. He saw the obvious familial resemblance between the two.

"Auntie Becca!" she said, joy in her voice, as the woman – Becca – crossed to them. "Mr. Thor said that he would go with me trick-or-treating and I'm going to dress up like him for Halloween!"

The aunt looked from her niece to Thor. Like the boys and Elizabeth, she recognized him. "I'm sorry that Elizabeth bothered you," Becca said. "My niece is an energetic child and she just wants to have the boys accept her."

Thor chuckled.

"It is no trouble, my lady," he said. "I will accompany her on this trick-or-treating that she spoke highly of."

That made Becca stammer and Elizabeth giggle excitedly.

And, hours later, when Thor returned to Stark Tower to inform the rest of the Avengers that he was going trick-or-treating and that they may accompany him, if they would like, he received various looks that ranged from humor to confusion. But only one face looked totally game for that idea and Thor knew that, at the very least, the Hawk would be accompanying little Elizabeth and himself in their pursuit of sugar and, to Clint's and Thor's sincerest hopes, Pop-Tarts.

Two days later, however, Natasha Romanoff, better known (and feared) as the Black Widow, had hopped on board, after Clint had promised her all of the Kit-Kats and Almond Joys that he got.

The Captain followed not too much after the Widow, when Thor had brought his new friend to Stark Tower one afternoon because her aunt needed someone to baby-sit the girl and Elizabeth's cousin had band practice after school. That was when Elizabeth had shyly told the misplaced legend about how her parents had been killed in a car accident in Colorado eighteen months prior and she had went to live with her aunt.

Bruce Banner and Tony followed shortly thereafter, when the girl looked at their science projects with glee. That, and Dummy liked Elizabeth, much to the Man of Iron's utmost surprise. Pepper might have had a hand in convincing Tony, but Pepper thought that socializing with small children would be good for Tony.

So, at five o'clock in the evening on Halloween, all six Avengers arrived at Elizabeth's house.

Thor wore his usual Asgardian armor, his cape flowing around him, Mjolinar in one hand and his candy sack in the other. Of all of the Avengers, he was the most excited to experience trick-or-treating, as it was his first Halloween.

Steve was wearing a World War II uniform that Pepper had found for him. Thor knew that the great warrior was displaced from time and that this uniform was most familiar to him. Bruce wore doctor's scrubs, though he had, for some reason unbeknownst to the Asgardian, put fake blood on them. Tony simply wore a suit and a hat, but insisted on walking around a very odd manner. The Man of Iron had huffed when Thor asked him about that and said that they needed to enhance his education of something called "Monty Python."

Natasha and Clint wore their standard SHIELD gear, lethal weapons and all, though said lethal weapons weren't armed (at the moment). They had rationed that some of the team should be armed because they _were _the Avengers and one never knew where trouble might strike.

However, all of that did not matter to Thor Odinson.

He rang the doorbell to the house with a large amount of glee. Seconds later, the door opened and he gave a roar of laughter and scooped young Elizabeth Barrett off of her feet. The rest of the Avengers could not contain their smiles at the sight of the great and mighty Thor (in full battle gear) holding a little blonde girl, dressed in a replica of his breastplate and a black tutu with slippers on her feet, a red cape trailing behind her, and a big red bow in her hair.

"You came!" the girl said, her high voice piping excited.

"As promised, lady Elizabeth."

Becca Andrews appeared at the door. She smiled. By now, she knew that Thor was protective of those he called friend and the fact that he had offered to baby-sit Elizabeth every day that he was on Midgard proved that he was extremely over-protective of the girl. Not only that, the fact that both Clint and Natasha had tailed him meant that she was familiar with half of the Avengers team.

"Have her back by nine, okay?" she asked.

"We will, Ms. Andrews," Natasha said as Thor set Elizabeth down on the ground, just so that she could launch herself at Clint for another hug.

To say that the Avengers team liked this girl would be an understatement. There was something about her that brought out their protectiveness (and, in the cases of Thor and Clint, inner child). On more than one occasion, Natasha would find her partner and the demi-god holding a tea party with Elizabeth and the heart of the well-feared assassin thought that was entirely adorable.

"Now," Thor said, drawing himself up to his fullest height, "we shall trick-or-treat!"

And that, as the rest of the world may or may not know, was how the Avengers introduced Thor to Halloween . . . and summarily realized that the large Asgardian should not be allowed anywhere near excessive amounts of candy (particularly when Agent Clint Barton was around).

_I hope that you guys like this.  
_

_It's kind of a crack-ish story. Like I said, it popped into my head and evolved into this little adventure. Just something of a Halloween treat for you all!_

_Please review and let me know what you think!_


End file.
